The Spin Doctors

You have to love the Democrats. They can put a spin on any disaster postmortem. The disaster in this case is Tuesday's primary election.

In the 5th US Congressional District race, Republican Cathy McMorris garnered 58% of the total vote comapred with 42% for Democrat Peter "Riding With Soneone Else's" Goldmark. Primary elections are not always a good indicator of general elections, but this clearly does not bode well for Goldmark. This was a race that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee recently upgraded to "emerging race" with the candidate in a position to switch the seat from Red to Blue.

The Northwest Progressive Institute blog, however, bravely asserts that "The obvious and hopeful conclusion we would like to draw ...is that ten thousand Republican voters across the district would prefer to vote for Peter, but can't do so in the primary." Bwhahhahahaha!

At least they do conclude that:

Any way you slice it, at this point McMorris is seemingly still winning this race. Goldmark and his campaign crew clearly have a bunch of work left to do between now and November 7th.

There are positive signs, in that his message seems to be resonating in Spokane, Pend Oreille, Lincoln, and Whitman counties.

Resonating in Whitman County? McMorris won by a 2-1 margin in Whitman County, the home of left-leaning Pullman and WSU. In Asotin County, Goldmark at least got 44% of the vote.

The Evergreen Politics blog concludes reports :

The Goldmark campaign is heartened by the primary results for their candidate. In a press release sent out today, they cite Alonso Rosado, a statistical analyst in the 2004 congressional race in the 5th district, who says, “To see this strong a showing for a Democratic candidate in this district is a clear indication of broad-based support. It’s a sign to me that Goldmark is a strong and competitive candidate.”

The press release also discusses the impact of the closed primary ballot, saying that Spokane county and other counties in the 5th CD had hotly contested sheriff's races, which prompted both Democrats and Independents to cross over and vote Republican in the primary, thus lessening the vote for Goldmark, who, of course, was not on the Republican primary ballot. Even with that, Goldmark received more votes in Okanogan county than McMorris and nearly as many in Spokane county.

The outlook for the Rats in the local races is even worse.

In the 9th Legislative District State Representative Position 1 race, the Republican candiates garnered 67% of the vote to Democrat Caitlin Ross' 33%.

Whitman County Commissioner District No.3 Republican candidates obtained 74% of the vote as opposed to Democrat Nathan Weller's 26%.

And in the Whitman County Auditor race, Democrat Nathan Horter received 27% of the votes while incumbent Republican Eunice Coker received 73%.

As Caitlin Ross said, "It's a great year to be a Democrat" But then again she also said that "I'm as qualified as my opponent." Good thing Ross also belives that "Success to me does not necessarily mean a victory. They're not necessarily synonymous."